NRN: MTY Food Group Closes 2,100 Restaurants and Lays Off Half of its Employees

Certain brands in the fast-casual segment have bucked overall trends with flat or even modest upticks in sales in recent weeks. While those stories are encouraging for the industry, they remain outliers.

Nation’s Restaurant News reported a stark reminder of that fact Tuesday morning with news that MTY Food Group, the Montreal-based franchisor behind more than 75 brands, including Papa Murphy’s, Pinkberry and Cold Stone Creamery, has closed 2,100 restaurants and laid off roughly half of its employees since March 11.

The franchising behemoth also announced it would delay the release of its quarterly financial results from April 14 to May 29.

> **Additionally, the quarterly dividend that was due in May has been suspended and the company’s leadership team has voluntarily reduced their salaries to help mitigate losses.**MTY Food Group has stipulated that while the company expects these store closures and layoffs to be temporary, “there is significant uncertainty around the ultimate extent, duration, severity of the pandemic itself and effects on consumer behavior.”

MTY’s brands currently have more than 6,000 restaurants throughout North America.